Industrial action over pay, pensions and public sector cuts will continue
until the next election, including a new bus strike over Olympic pay, Len
McCluskey, the leader of Unite, has threatened.

Mr McCluskey, general secretary of the country's biggest trade union, urged Labour to prepare for an early general election because of the continuing economic uncertainty and anger over the Government's policies.

He said bus workers in London will stage further strikes unless there is a deal over their claim for a bonus for working during the Olympic Games.

Thousands of drivers and other employees at 17 bus companies staged a 24-hour walkout on Friday in pursuit of a claim for a £500 bonus, causing travel chaos across the capital.

Mr McCluskey warned the employers that unless they negotiate a "fair and sensible" solution, there will be further strikes.

He told Unite's national policy conference in Brighton: "This is a straightforward dispute about fairness, giving hard-working bus workers the same bonus for facing challenges, that have already been awarded to other transport workers, and a fraction of the bonuses being paid to Transport for London bosses.

"I say to Mayor Boris Johnson and the rest of the bus companies 'Sort it out or more strikes are inevitable'."

A series of national strikes has been held by public sector workers, teachers are threatening co-ordinated action in the autumn and doctors took industrial action last week for the first time in almost 40 years, while police and prison officers have also staged demonstrations.

"This campaign will run and run, probably up to the next election," said Mr McCluskey earlier.

"Governments that don't listen to the concerns of ordinary people tend to get turfed out of office. There will be further campaigns and further strikes and all this will be a major issue at the next election."

Mr McCluskey said Labour has to "get its act together" and prepare for a general election in 2014, a year earlier than the next poll is due.

"The Labour Party would be sensible to prepare for an election. These are extraordinary times - none of us have been here before, no-one knows what is around the corner. Anything can happen, but I hope people don't forget the ineptitude of this government and the blame they are trying to put on workers for the economic crisis.

"We are stumbling from week to week on the eurozone, it is inevitable that Greece will exit the euro but my fear is that it will happen without being properly managed.

"All of this could spin out of control, at a time of divisions within the coalition government which means it could begin to break."

Mr McCluskey said workers desperately needed hope amid the government's austerity measures and "attacks" on public services, adding it was "frightening" that most of the spending cuts haven't been implemented yet.

"We almost face a future with no hope," said Mr McCluskey.

He urged Labour leader Ed Miliband, who addresses the conference later this week, to give details of the party's alternative to the government's policies.

"If it is not a radical alternative to the current policies or despair, one that gives people hope, then Labour will lose the next election."

Mr McCluskey agreed with the GMB union that money given to Labour party pressure group Progress raised "concerns" and said it was right that the party's executive should satisfy itself that the group was not "overstepping the mark."

Unite has been involved in a spate of industrial disputes this year involving fuel tanker drivers, public sector workers and London bus drivers.